Download Our Free Ebook, 7 Ways Your Mattress Is Killing you, Today!
Learn about how your current mattress is hurting you and why a good nights sleep is so important.
Perhaps your kids are getting more sleep than ever these days with their social activities strictly limited and more time at home. Boredom can increase sleep time, too. Or maybe your kids are pulling all-nighters watching Netflix, making TikTok videos, chatting with friends or, now that school has begun, doing homework and actually reading.
Whatever life’s activities are, everything can be done better and with more enthusiasm and joy when we are well-rested. The same rings true for your kids.
Depending on your child’s age, there are very specific recommendations about how much sleep they should get. Question is: are they? After all, it’s your job as a parent to ensure their wellbeing and since sleep is fundamental to growth and a strong immune system, to learning and their physical development as well as their emotional wellness, it should be a top priority.
While you, as an adult, likely have adapted to getting less sleep and still being able to get through your day, babies, children and teens don’t cope as well and need significantly more sleep than adults. A child’s early years are so important in terms of development.
Different amounts of sleep are needed through different stages of development, from babies to a child to a teen—sleep is part of a healthy, holistic lifestyle. So, what’s the rule of thumb? Here’s a chart giving age appropriate and science-based recommendations for total hours of sleep each day including night and daytime naps combined.
As with everything health-wise, knowing the rule of thumb is a great start, but of course, you know your child best. If your baby, child or teen seems to function better on even more sleep, use the above guidelines for sleep as a baseline and add more as you deem appropriate up until the maximum because there is such a thing as too much sleep. In these cases, you may want to evaluate the underlying reason for excessive sleep.
As we’ve established, sleep is a healthy addition to a holistic lifestyle and critical for your child’s growth and development throughout childhood. This is because, just as sleep can have a positive effect on your child’s health, not getting enough sleep can lead to long lasting health effects if it persists.
What doesn’t sleep affect? Below is just a short list of the many benefits that sleep can have on your holistic health:
The effects of sleep deprivation go far beyond sleepiness during the day. Here are just some of the negative effects that result from sleep deprivation in babies, children and teens:
Sometimes, half the battle is just getting your child, teen or babies to fall asleep and stay asleep.
Getting quality sleep can often be solved by employing some simple tactics and creating habits, including:
In some cases, all that is needed to sleep better is creating the right environment for rest—starting with a cool, dark room and a natural, non-toxic bed. At SAMINA, we believe a Healthy Sleep Solution is a holistic solution.
To learn more about SAMINA healthy sleep products, contact us today and start sleeping better tonight.
When you consider how many different factors can negatively affect your sleep, dehydration isn’t usually high on the list. We all know that pillows, mattresses, room temperature, pre-bed routines, and body positioning play significant roles. But if you’ve been having trouble getting quality sleep and can’t find a culprit, you may want to explore dehydration as a possibility.
Keep reading to find out how dehydration affects your sleep and what you can do about it.
It is possible to be dehydrated even when you don’t feel thirsty, so relying on thirst alone to guide you is never a good idea. The consequences of dehydration can range from mild to severe, and include headaches, dizziness, confusion, fatigue, organ failure and even death in extreme cases. At night, dehydration can disrupt your sleep so you wake up not rested and still tired. It can also lead to a dry throat and nasal passages that lead to snoring and a raw, parched mouth in the morning. Trying to sleep while dehydrated can also lead to leg cramps and muscle spasms that will keep you up.
Surprisingly, dehydration actually increases the urge to use the bathroom in the middle of the night!
It makes sense that sleeping in a dry environment can dehydrate you faster than an environment with higher humidity levels. If your bedroom is particularly dry, you can become dehydrated while you sleep, or if you already are dehydrated, the situation will be made worse. And if you sleep in an environment that is conducive to dehydration, the sleep hormone melatonin may be affected, which can throw off your circadian rhythm and lead to poor quality sleep.
In 2018, the journal Sleep published research that found adults that sleep six hours per night or less have a higher chance of being dehydrated than those who slept longer.
Some believe these findings indicate that poor sleep symptoms like fatigue, headache or muddled thinking that many people experience in the morning may be caused by dehydration during the night.
The research was performed on around 20,000 Chinese and US adults. Those who claimed to sleep six hours a night or fewer across both groups had a 59% higher risk of being dehydrated than those who slept seven to eight hours regularly. The key may be a hormone called vasopressin. While you sleep, your pituitary gland uses vasopressin to signal the kidneys to retain fluid. Typically, more vasopressin is released later on in the sleep cycle, which is a period the shorter duration sleepers don’t reach.
It’s important to start the night well hydrated because you will lose fluid simply through the act of sleeping. The act of breathing leads to fluid loss, and this is exacerbated if you breathe through your mouth or snore during the night. As mentioned above, sleeping in a dry environment can increase fluid loss, as can exercising intensely in the evening or drinking alcohol to excess before bed.
It’s easy to assume that guzzling copious amounts of water before bed would be the solution to staying hydrated and having a more restful sleep, but that might not be the case. You may end up making multiple trips to the bathroom during the night, which would disrupt your sleep anyway.
It’s better to think of hydration as a whole day type of activity and not just think of it when you are faced with going to bed.
Some useful tips you can use include:
Staying hydrated at night to avoid the negative effects of dehydration can be challenging, but it’s definitely within reach. At SAMINA, we have a wide range of products that can help you have a holistic, natural sleep and avoid sleep-related dehydration. For pricing or any other questions, request more information here.
Most people love the summer heat during the day, but when night falls and it’s time to get to sleep, that same heat takes on a more sinister role. If you don’t have adequate air conditioning in your home (and sometimes even if you do), restful sleep may be replaced by tossing and turning, trying to cool down and get comfortable.
The average person spends around one-third of their lives sleeping, and there have been countless studies performed that connect adequate sleep with a range of health benefits. These include better immune function, higher cognitive ability, disease prevention, increased energy levels and better overall health.
If you’ve been having trouble sleeping comfortably through the hot summer, keep reading to find out the role temperature plays in quality sleep and how you can sleep more soundly.
In the natural process of falling asleep, temperature plays a significant role. As day turns to night and it gets closer to bedtime, the pineal gland releases melatonin in an attempt to help your body reduce heat. When you get into bed, your body temperature continues to decrease, until it is one or two degrees cooler than during the day. That temperature change helps you get to sleep faster to facilitate a good night’s rest. Naturally, if your room is hot and humid, it will be more difficult to cool down and start the sleep process.
Comfort is the main ingredient to healthy sleep, and that’s going to vary depending on the person. Many experts suggest keeping your bedroom cool, in the 60-68 degree range, for the best chance at finding that ideal temperature for you. If you are able to fall asleep relatively quickly and remain sleeping comfortably throughout the night, you’ve likely found the right temperature for your body. Another tip for keeping your room at the right temperature is minimizing the light and keeping it as quiet as possible. This may include installing coverings for your windows to block out street lights and turning off LED lights from any devices in your room.
The more you can make your room like a cave, the more relaxed you’ll be and the easier it will be to regulate your temperature.
If you experience high humidity in your bedroom, a dehumidifier that’s set to around 30-50% humidity should keep it right where you need it for maximum comfort.
There are a number of different things you can do to stay cool enough at night and sleep well during those hot summer nights. Here are some useful tips to keep in mind:
Temperature and quality sleep are closely related, so just trying to tough it out and make the most of it probably isn’t the way to go.
As you can see, you can have a say in controlling the temperature in your sleeping space, even if you don’t have a high-powered AC system working for you.
At SAMINA, we offer world-class sleep products and accessories that will help you have a quality sleep under any conditions. With luxury mattresses and complete holistic sleep systems, you can count on a natural sleep every time. Request more information on the SAMINA sleep system here.
While the importance of sleep is well known and scientifically documented, warnings for sleep deprivation are rarely taken seriously. Many Americans forego the full recommendation of 7 or more hours in favor of fitting in extra work, leisure, or social activities. This can be detrimental to your mental health, and your physical health.
According to the CDC, it’s not just your brain that requires sleep to reboot and regenerate. The human heart is also greatly impacted by sleep patterns. In fact, not receiving enough sleep each night has been linked to several heart-impacting disorders, including obesity, type 2 diabetes, and high blood pressure.
For some Americans losing sleep isn’t a choice, but an inability to get comfortable enough to remain asleep through the night. Fortunately, at SAMINA, our doctor recommended mattress is the perfect combination of supple softness, support, and temperature control needed to catch some z’s and keep them. Here’s what you should know about your heart and sleep.
One of the ways a high-quality mattress ensures you have the healthiest sleep ever is by remaining supportive. Over time the springs or foam in traditional mattresses begin to sag. This creates a dip in the center of the bed, where your body sinks in. Unfortunately, this body groove no longer offers the support necessary to keep your spine properly curved, which could result in restless sleep and sore mornings. This can be even worse for couples who develop dips in their respective sides, forming a hill between them.
At SAMINA we solve the problem of sagging springs with our natural rubber mattress in combination with the SAMINA slats. A non-toxic mattress made from high-quality organic rubber maintains its shape and elasticity with no worry about dips or grooves. The flexible slats give enough for support without fear of the wooden slats permanently bending. This combination ensures you get all the sleep your heart needs to stay healthy. It’s great design at its best!
Choosing the right mattress not only ensures you sleep through the night, it also offers additional benefits, like grounding. Grounding is the action of reconnecting with the natural electromagnetic energy of the earth. This happens when we run our toes through the grass or bury our feet in the sand. At SAMINA, we capture the same sensory experience and bioelectric energy with our LOKOSANA grounding pad.
Research revolving around grounding or “Earthing” has come to show that it affects many areas of the body, including the heart. A study published in the Journal of Environmental Public Health found that subjects exposed to electromagnetic energy for grounding experienced improved heart rate and a greater response of the autonomic nervous system.
Using natural materials on your bed is a great way to reduce the risk of allergy, asthma, and respiratory illness. Even with a protective top sheet, most traditional mattresses are exposed to dead skin, sweat, and bacteria every night. These particles are inhaled and absorbed as you sleep causing health problems and disturbing sleep. Allergens not only limit the hours of rest you obtain but increase the risk of heart-related illness.
Allergies and respiratory illness have been linked to the immune system in the past, but recent research has connected allergens to the cardiovascular system as well. In other words, the buildup of allergens in your mattress could impact your heart health in a major way. This is due to the connection between lung and heart health. In fact, lung disease often leads to right ventricular enlargement and heart failure, while a decreased immune system could weaken heart muscles.
To battle this issue, SAMINA developed a climate-regulating virgin sheep’s wool mattress topper. Made with 100% virgin sheep’s wool, the topper combines advanced moisture absorption with a natural ability to self-clean. The open air design of the SAMINA system is unique in its design and encouraging moisture to evaporate. This prevents allergens from taking root in your mattress topper so you can enjoy a good night’s rest and prolonged heart health.
Interested in learning more about what a great luxury mattress can do for your heart health? At SAMINA we’re happy to answer questions and provide insight on each of our green mattresses made with certified organic materials.
It’s best when you can schedule an appointment to view our products and experience the SAMINA difference, but you may also order directly from us over the phone. A SAMINA Sleep Concierge will verify each order to ensure you and your sleeping partner, when applicable, have the right system for your respective physical needs and specific sleep concerns.
Our healthy sleep concierge service is available Monday – Saturday, 9am – 6pm PST. Our aim is to reply to you within 24 hours.
As a naturopathic doctor that focuses his practice on environmental medicine and healthy clean living,
I came across a very interesting phenomenon in practice. I have seen that there’s a very small number
of patients in my practice that seem to be extremely sensitive to the materials that their mattresses and
pillows are made of. Even though this is a small number of patients (perhaps less than 10% of my
patients), it’s still very significant as these patients have been experiencing a collection of “strange and
undiagnosed” symptoms that ended up being caused by their everyday exposure to their mattresses.
Over many years, they have seen multiple doctors, running lots of tests, and even done MRIs, in their
attempt to find out what is causing their symptoms that do not seem to be improving with attempted
treatment over the last few months or years.
The collection of symptoms that my patients report, which I believe to be related to their exposure to
VOCs from their mattresses or pillows are fatigue, balance issues/dizziness (especially in the
morning), brain fog or poor concentration, headache in the morning, and along with the more rare
symptom of numbness and tingling either in their hands, feet, or face. The reason that I feel these are
coming from their mattress and pillow is that 1) their symptoms started shortly after they purchased them. 2) Their symptoms match those of low chronic ongoing exposure to solvent/VOCs/off-gassing.
3) Their symptoms improved once they tried sleeping on a mattress that does not off-gas petroleum-based solvents VOCs. These symptoms and the improvements have been seen specifically with
regards to some memory foam-based mattresses and pillows and their subsequent removal.
One question I get asked often is “Why does my partner have no symptoms while sleeping on the
same mattress that I appear to be reactive to?”
Without going into a lot of detail here, the simplest answer is that we are individuals and have very
different genetics and different total body burdens of toxicants and toxins. Everyone responds
differently to chemicals – from chemical cleaners to pharmaceuticals, to alcohol. Depending on how
well we can clear a specific category of toxicants/toxins (due to your individual genetic profile – for
example our glutathione-s-transferase detoxification profile and our methylation profile), and how high
of a total body burden we’ve acquired based on our hobbies, diets, jobs, and lifestyle, we will all
respond very differently to chemicals. Thus, the same exact exposure to a chemical compound will
cause one person to experience no symptoms, while in another person it may manifest with very
significant and life-altering symptoms.
Seeing the improvement in my patients’ health has inspired me to purchase an organic, clean, and
non-off gassing mattress for myself, specifically one made from natural rubber, latex foam. I have been
sleeping on one for years now, enjoying a cleaner sleeping experience and sleeping better overall.
It wasn’t until recently that I have had a chance to upgrade my bed to a Samina mattress & bed frame.
I decided to invest in my health a bit more, especially considering all the research showing how
important good quality sleep is for prevention of diseases such as cardiovascular disease and
dementia/cognitive function.
When the crew from Samina came to my condo to install the bed, I was very pleasantly surprised by
the quality of the inclined bedframe and how It fits together so simply and without the use of any metal,
using a lock and key latch design. Also, with how easy it was to change from a 3 degrees incline to 5
or 7-degree incline if I ever decided to increase the incline (I started and stayed with 3 degrees for
now). It was obvious that a lot of care was taken in designing not only the bedframe but in every layer of the mattress, from the wooden panels for back support, organic latex foam, to the merino wool
layer.
To keep things short and simple, I was happy with the improvement that I experience in my sleep from
this upgrade to the Samina bed from my previous organic latex mattress. Both are great options for
improving the quality of my sleep and reducing my risk of developing any symptoms/future health
concerns and I can comfortably recommend anyone who is interested in optimizing their health to
look into upgrading to a Samina bed if they have the option to.
Dr. Aviad Elgez, ND